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They moved to the States for two months and hired Peter Katis to produce (whose previous work includes Interpol and The National). Having already created a name for themselves in the UK capital with a few well-received singles and looking to expand their reputation, Fanfarlo headed into the studio at the end of 2008 looking to capitalise on their unexpected popularity. Ultimately, though, “Sleepyhead” is their biggest success to date, and their next battle will be topping that. Phoenix is a prime example of a band that took off with their sound, and hopefully Passion Pit will as well. It’s a good debut from a band that shows a lot of promise, but it will be interesting to see where they go from here. Among the flood of indie-electro groups coming out, they are a breath of fresh air. The band has found a great balance of incorporating multiple synths and beats (among the other various instruments) – and it’s an interesting sound. Lead singer Michael Angelakos sounds like he is filled with helium, yet that synth line never quits. It’s not your typical pop tune either, as the band really has a quirky sound to them. –John UlmerĮven though the song was released in 2008 on an EP, “Sleepyhead” was one of the catchiest songs of 2009 (you can even hear it on the new Palm Pre commercial). Whether dealing with racism or politics, Mos Def has always been the thinking man’s hip-hop star, and The Ecstatic does nothing if not establish the man born Dante Smith as a uniquely gifted artist, celebrating his tenth anniversary in the limelight with one of the best rap albums of not just the year, but the decade.
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It’s nice, then, to see him bounce back with another album on the same level as his debut: The Ecstatic is smart, fun, catchy (see if “Casa Bey” doesn’t glue itself to your brain), and lyrically conscious.
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2004’s follow-up, The New Danger, instantly refuted much of his supporters’ praise – it was simply muddled and largely uninspired, as if his shifting focus into the realm of cinema had distracted him from his music. They were confident miniatures, rich in implications.1999’s Black on Both Sides established Mos Def as one of the most talented new rappers on the planet, delivering an intelligent and passionate playlist of songs that caught him plenty of hype and overnight success. The quartet played attentively, poised or just harsh enough, savoring the suspense none of the new pieces overstayed. There was also Dave Reminick’s “Oh My God, I’ll Never Get Home,” which had the quartet singing a poem by Russell Edson about a man falling to pieces as he walks, with heaving music to match.Įach piece was introduced, with an explanation, by a quartet member the violinist Clara Lyon smiled as she praised the “weird things happening” in “Concertino.” The pieces had a shared palette: dissonant and clenched, with fleeting moments of delicacy giving way to more tension. Playing on its own, Spektral - a string quartet from Chicago - brought one piece, Liza White’s “Zin zin zin zin,” that got its title and its rhythmic thrust from a rap by Mos Def, and another, by Chris Fisher-Lochhead, that radically rearranged a moody electronic lament by James Blake, “I Never Learnt to Share,” along with Stravinsky’s “Concertino” from 1920. In its sources and allusions, the concert took for granted the broad-spectrum musical erudition of current composers: hip-hop, medieval motets, Broadway, Impressionism, dubstep. Julia Holter and the Spektral Quartet shared the Ecstatic Music Festival concert on Wednesday night at Merkin Concert Hall in a program that lingered in the cloudy zone where contemporary composition meets the pop song. First it was brusque, then eerie and sly.